Book Review: The Dreamer (To the Ends)

Late Start

The Dreamer is the debut release from our friend Jenny Marcelene. It’s the first in a series of books she’s working on to help kids cultivate a biblical worldview and spark an interest in how they can pray for the nations. I’ve been sitting on this book for months, mostly because I wanted to read it with my boys who are 9 and 11 (right in the target demo for this book!) and get their feedback as we went.

The problem was, we’d just started The Hobbit when I got the book from Jenny, and breaking up the dwarven company proved to be difficult. So once the dragon was slain, and Bilbo made his way back home, we dove into our next adventure with The Dreamer. So, while I’m sharing my thoughts on the book, I’ll also be writing with an eye toward what my kids thought, questions they asked, and conversations it sparked.

The Adventure Begins

The book starts after two young brothers, Jason and Fred, are waiting for their parents to pick them up from a week at Bible camp. While they wait, they go inside an old mansion on the grounds and start exploring. They find a board game, crack it open, and before they know it they’re given a mission—find the dreamer, and give him a holy book. The next thing they know, their world is spinning. When they open their eyes, they’re drifting on a hot air balloon, wearing unfamiliar clothes, and looking down on land that clearly isn’t home.

Once they land, they realize they’re in Afghanistan thanks to remembering the board from the game they opened. They know their mission, but they have no idea who the dreamer could be or what book they’re supposed to be delivering. Jason and Fred make some new friends and learn about their culture and their faith. Some things translate just fine (soccer and snacks), but some lead to lots of questions (Muslim traditions, walking miles to school, etc.).

Eventually, the boys discover that To the Ends is more than a simple game. It’s a secret global kids agency that’s tasked with seeing the word of God make its way to the ends of the earth, with the help of young believers just like Jason and Fred. It turns out there are lots of agents and lots of missions happening all around the world (hopefully we’ll see more of them in the rest of Jenny’s series as it develops!). You’ll have to read yourself to find out who the dreamer is, what book needed to be delivered, and if the boys found success in their first mission.

Mission Debrief

My boys feel in love with this story as soon as we started it. I’m not sure if it was the mystery/secret agent component, but one of them asked to jump right back into the book each day they got home from school. The entire book is less than 100 pages, so it’s easy to get through, and Jenny writes with pace that keeps the story moving with lots of ‘aha!” moments strung along the way.

The Dreamer does a superb job of introducing kids to the land of Afghanistan. Jenny paints a clear picture of what life looks like for normal kids there. From the big picture stuff like school, soccer, and they way they dress to more granular details like how they sit down for meals and rich descriptions of the food they enjoyed at lunch. My kids learned several new Afghan words for their dress, religious traditions, etc. (and I learned to pronounce them!).

One of the great things about this book is all the questions and conversation it drew out of my kids. We haven’t taught them a lot about Islam, though they do have some Muslim school friends, so whenever they heard a new word or learned about a new tradition we inevitably put the book down for a few minutes to talk about it. It was really interesting to hear what they were thinking about what the kids were going through, and the differences they saw in the Islamic tradition and what they’ve learned about faith from us and the church we’re at. Their questions ended up spurring some of the deeper conversations and realizations about Jesus, the value of the Bible, and my faith that I’ve had with our boys.

I love the idea of using this book (and potentially others in the series) to introduce kids and families to new cultures and religions that they can learn about, ask questions of, and consider praying for (Jenny includes a helpful, concise prayer guide at the end of the book). This is a great way to begin conversations with your kids about mission work (locally or around the world), and build categories for what it looks like to live with the Great Commission in mind (Matthew 28:18-20). I don’t have to be an expert about a specific place, people group, or religion to help introduce it to my kids, which takes a lot of the pressure off as a parent.

Finally, Jenny did a wonderful job of putting the entire story in the context of Isaiah 49:6. “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant . . . I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” It shows up both at the beginning and end of the story, and serves as a great book end to talk about mission work in general with my boys, and also what that means for them in their day-to-day experience and conversations at school, swim practice, etc.

Final Word

The Dreamer is a really fun story that’s exciting for kids to engage with and also serves to spur them to consider their faith and the call of the Lord to share it. Jenny takes what could be a boring slide of facts about Afghanistan, its people, and their religion and turns it into a story to remember and consider deeply. She’s not writing to make anyone feel guilty, but rather invites readers to consider how God might move to see people around the world come to faith when it may seem impossible from so far away. She helps kids see the power of God to change hearts, and teaches them to pray for those they may never see or meet.